My Menu Plan 10/31/11

I am really enjoying trying some new recipes this fall - especially comfort food! I have a special one this week I'll be making. My husband gave me a list awhile ago of his favorite foods his mom made. She passed away when he was 19, so I don't have any of her recipes but I love trying to re-create his favorites. I'm trying a scalloped potato recipe this week! 


I also ended up loving a couple recipes from last week; stuffed green peppers and a chicken and sweet potato chowder. YUM! I'll be making those again for sure.

Click here to see what others are making this week!

Monday
Chicken Divan

Tuesday
Spaghetti (my own recipe) with Corn and Garlic Bread

Wednesday
Creamy Scalloped Potato with Ham

Thursday
Slow Cooker Pot Roast (using my own recipe and a little from here)

Friday

Leftovers!

Saturday
Going out for Date Night!


Sunday
Always my night off!

I am also linking up to these sites:

Thanks for visiting!

Stuffed Green Peppers

I often like asking my husband for meal ideas based on things his mom used to make when he was a boy, and many of those become regular staple meals for us. One of those ideas was stuffed green peppers. I finally got this on my menu and found a great recipe to try. I was very pleased with how they turned out!! Not only were they easier than I thought, they were really yummy. The funny thing was that while hand-pouring my sugar into the (tomato) sauce I accidentally over did it! I also used olive oil instead of vegetable oil. I really think it was that sauce that made it taste so good.

Ingredients:

• 4 green peppers with tops cut off and seeds removed
• ground beef
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1-2 T minced garlic
• 2-3 T parsley
• 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
• 2 cups uncooked rice
• tomato sauce
• sugar
• olive oil

Instructions:

• Set oven to 450 and begin browning the ground beef.
• While that is cooking, make your rice.
• Once meat is no longer pink, add eggs, garlic, parsley and Parmesan cheese.
• Cut the tops off the green peppers and remove the stems and seeds.
• Stuff the peppers with the meat mixture placing them in a roasting pan.
• Drizzle olive oil over the peppers and place in the oven for 20 minutes.
• Remove peppers from oven and turn oven down to 350. Mix tomato sauce, a little water and sugar. Pour over top of peppers and return to oven.
• Bake another 30-40 minutes until your peppers are nice and soft. Add a bit of water if the sauce dries up too much.

Serve and enjoy!

Thanks for visiting :o)

Chicken and Sweet Potato Chowder

  

I signed up on the Land-O-Lakes website and found a great recipe. I have been looking for some good fall recipes, and this was a great one. We have a Soup Swap at my church's mom's group next month, and I decided I'll be making this one! The whole family loved it, including my often finicky toddler son.

Ingredients:

• 2 T butter
• 1 cup chopped celery
• 2 sweet potatoes, peeled and cut
• 1 to 2 cans of chicken broth
• 1 T minced garlic
• 1 t thyme
• 2 cups cubed cooked chicken
• 1/2 t paprika
• 1 cup Half & Half
• 2 T flour

Instructions:

• Melt butter in pan and add garlic and celery. Cook until tender.
• Add sweet potatoes, chicken broth, garlic and thyme leaves. Cook until mixture boils and potatoes are tender (10 to 15 minutes).
• Stir in chicken and paprika.
• In small bowl, combine half and half with flour until smooth. Gradually add mixture to pan stirring constantly until mixture comes to a boil and is thickened (6 to 8 minutes).

Serve and enjoy! We had ours with oyster crackers.

Thanks for visiting!

Menu Plan Monday 10/24/11

Click here to see what others are making this week!

Monday
Macaroni and Cheese with Tuna and Peas (my son loves that this rhymes!)

Tuesday
Chicken and Sweet Potato Chowder

Wednesday
Stuffed Green Peppers (recipe to come)

Thursday
Slow Cooker Pot Roast (using my own recipe and a little from here)

Friday

Pasta E Fagioli

Saturday
Going out for Date Night!

Sunday
Always my night off!

I am also linking up to these sites:

Thanks for visiting!

My Menu Plan 10/17/11

It has been almost two years since I started my cooking blog. Recently, I was reflecting on that and thinking about the type of cooking that I've done the past nine years of my marriage. My cooking has really evolved! I started off in my marriage with some of the basics, but at that time my "homemade" usually consisted of cooking with Hamburger Helper or things like chicken cacciatore from a jar. Now, I love trying all kinds of new recipes and making from-scratch meals. Cooking has become something of a hobby.

Click here to see what others are making this week!

Monday
Avocado BLTs with Turkey Bacon and Side Salad

Tuesday
Beef Squash Casserole

Wednesday
Grilled Cheese with Baked Potato

Thursday
Pesto Ravioli with Chicken

Friday

Headed to Chicago for family weekend

Saturday
Chicago

Sunday
Always my night off!

I am also linking up to Serve It Up Sunday and Join in the Mayhem:

Thanks for visiting!

My Menu Plan 10/10/11

I really enjoy cooking and trying new recipes so I like doing a menu each week. I also got a lot out of doing the "eating through the pantry and freezer" plan, it's helped me to create better planning habits.

I've made it a regular habit now to first go through my pantry and freezer before I plan my menu. Even though I'm not doing that exclusively, I find that I'm saving at least $30 a week now on groceries just by doing better with the ingredients I already have on hand. Here is what I'll be making this week.

Click here to see what others are making this week!

Monday
Hamburger Cabbage Soup (an Amish recipe)

Tuesday
Sweet Potato Tray Baked Chicken with Peas

Wednesday
Lasagna Mac ala Kraft Sharp Cheddar Mac-N-Cheese with Corn

Thursday
Leftovers

Friday

African Chicken Peanut Stew

Saturday
Possible date night - Out to Eat!

Sunday
Always my night off!

I am also linking up to Serve It Up Sunday and Join in the Mayhem:

Thanks for visiting!

Chicken Cacciatore

Well, too late I realized the recipe I printed out from My Menu Plan this week was supposed to be cooked in a slow cooker. Oops! So I had to improvise and created the recipe below, using some basics from the original recipe. I liked how it turned out! Very flavorful and my son just loved it. Definitely a keeper!

INGREDIENTS:

1-2 pounds chicken breast, cubed

1 can diced tomatoes

1 can tomato paste

1/2 cup chicken broth

1 red pepper, diced

1-2 carrots, diced

1 T minced garlic

Italian seasonings to taste

1 cup rice, cooked

INSTRUCTIONS:

• Cook chicken in 1 tablespoon olive oil until no pink is left.
• Add red pepper, diced tomatoes, tomato paste, carrots, chicken broth and Italian seasoning. Stir ingredients together.
• Cook on low to medium heat until carrots and red pepper are tender (20 minutes or so).
• Serve over cooked rice.

ENJOY!

Thanks for visiting!

My Menu Plan 10/3/11

I really enjoy cooking and trying new recipes. One thing I look for are meals that have all the ingredients in one dish. That way, the meat, pasta/potato and vegetable are all together! I love meals like that. Here is what I plan on making this week. I'm still trying to use up the ingredients in my pantry and now working on our freezer.

Click here to see what others are making this week!

Monday
Beef Stroganoff over Noodles with Peas

Tuesday
Easy Chicken Cacciatore with Corn (Recipe is from Parents.com)

Wednesday
Spaghetti with Garlic Bread

Thursday
Chicken Divan Casserole

Friday
Hamburger Cabbage Soup an Amish recipe

Saturday
Possible date night - Out to Eat!

Sunday
Always my night off!

I am also linking up to Serve It Up Sunday:

Thanks for visiting!